Keloglan and the Forty Riddles

Once upon a time, one summer, Keloglan set off for the city. When evening came, he stopped at a caravanserai by the road. A huge fire was burning in the courtyard, with merchants and camel drivers sitting around it. The caravan leader was a cheerful old man with a white beard. "Come and sit down, young man. At night we tell riddles here. Whoever guesses right wins a gold coin, and whoever can't throws a log on the fire."

Keloglan sat down by the fire. The caravan leader asked the first riddle: "A little barrel full of a little pickle. What is it?" The merchants thought. Keloglan laughed: "An egg." He won a gold coin. The caravan leader asked the second: "It has a mouth but no tongue, a body but no hands; food comes out of its belly, but it stays hungry itself. What is it?" "A cooking pot," said Keloglan. He won a second coin.

"It comes at night and goes by day; it has neither feet nor wings. What is it?" "Darkness." "Layer upon layer, and the girls can't eat enough. What is it?" Keloglan thought for a moment: "A cabbage." The camel drivers laughed: "This bald boy knows them all!" The caravan leader began asking harder ones.

"I have a field that is never ploughed and never sown, yet it is mown every year. What is it?" Keloglan looked at the caravan leader's beard: "A beard, sir. It's never sown, but the barber mows it every week." Everyone roared with laughter. "When I go, it goes; when I stop, it stops. What is it?" "A shadow." "Long, long roads with one single traveller on them; it never eats and never drinks, yet it always walks. What is it?" "The moon!"

The night went on, and the gold coins piled up in front of Keloglan. At last the caravan leader said, "Now you ask one." Keloglan thought for a while, then asked: "I brought something to this caravanserai, but nobody saw it. By this fire I won something, but it's worth more than gold. In the morning, when I leave, I'll leave something behind, but it will never grow less. What is it?"

The merchants, the camel drivers and the caravan leader thought for a long time. One said "gold", one said "a donkey", one said "a saddlebag". None of them was right. The fire was about to go out, and since nobody knew, each of them threw on a log, and the fire blazed up again. At last the caravan leader gave up: "Tell us, Keloglan. What is it?"

Keloglan smiled: "I brought joy to this caravanserai. Nobody saw it, but everybody laughed. By this fire I won friendship, which is worth more than gold. And in the morning, when I leave, I'll leave you a tale; however often you tell it, it will never grow less." The caravan leader stood up and hugged Keloglan: "I've never heard such a riddle in my life!"

Keloglan told them tales until morning. When morning came, he held out the gold coins he had won to the caravan leader: "If you come across a poor village on your way, have a well dug for it with these." The caravan leader added a purse of his own to the coins. The caravan set off, and they had a big well dug for a thirsty village along the way. Beside the well they set up a stone, and on it they wrote: "The answer to a riddle."

Now you ask a riddle before you go to sleep: it opens by day and closes by night, and inside it two bright stars are hidden. What is it? Can't guess? Your eyes! Now close them, so the tale can turn into a dream. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who asked, one for the one who answered, and one for whoever solves the riddle in their sleep.